Dish retaining rack



July 8, 1969 c LEEDY 3,454,019

DISH RETAINING RACK Filed Jan. 9, 1967 I N VEN TOR. (5 142463 A 4550/ BY M United States Patent 3,454,019 DISH RETAINING RACK Charles D. Leedy, Sparta, Mich., assignor to Arthur W. Carlson, Muskegon, and Theodore Schaap and Henry Timrner, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Filed Jan. 9, 1967, Ser. No. 608,180 Int. Cl. A47l15/50, 15/22 US. Cl. 134-172 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A dish rack having a pair of spaced, generally horizontal rail members upon which are mounted forward and rearward dish retaining members adapted to engage respectively with the forward and rearward sides of a dish positioned therebetween. Each of the members comprises a non-scratching, high-friction material covered resilient wire-like member having first and second sides which extend upwardly and forwardly above the rails, one of the sides being afiixed to each of the rails. Each of the sides bend rearwardly to form a knee at the upper extremity of its forwardly extending section. The sides then converge to form an upper dish retaining contact. A horizontal nozzle assembly is provided to strike the dish from the front and twist it about the knee such that the upper forward side abuts the forward upper dish retaining contact to prevent the dish from being pushed upwardly and out of the rack under the influence of a high-pressure, generally vertical nozzle.

Background In co-pending applications Ser. No. 607,948, filed J an. 9, 1967 and Ser. No. 608,187 filed Jan. 9, 1967, both having common assignees with the instant case, there is disclosed a method and apparatus for washing dishes wherein the conventional low-pressure, high-volume washing concept is replaced by a concept which involves, inter alia, the utilization of a high-pressure, generally vertically oriented series of water jets to cleanse the dishes. It has been found that when this system is pressurized to the optimum cleansing point, a marked tendency exists for the generally vertically oriented spray jets to lift the dishes from the rack during the washing and rinsing operations causing them to be chipped or completely shattered. The existence of this tendency depends upon the concavity and the size of the particular dish in question and, since it is desirable to provide a washing rack capable of effectively retaining all different types of dishes under the high-pressure, generally vertically oriented spray, it is not possible to design a retaining member to conform to the concavity and size of each particular dish.

In addition to the generally vertically oriented spray nozzles, the above noted co-pending applications also contemplate the utilization of one or more nozzles arranged to emit their fan-shaped jets of water at an angle approximately 20 above the horizontal. It is the primary function of these particular jets to reach and clean those portions of the dishes which are hidden from the generally vertically oriented spray because of their particular disposition within the rack.

Objects and specification It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a dish retaining rack which will effectively retain dishes positioned therewithin despite the impingement on them of a high-pressure, generally vertically oriented spray of wash or rinse water.

More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide a device of the type described which will posi- See tively retain the dishes in position despite marked variations in their size and concavity.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a device of the type described which utilizes the force components of a generally horizontally directed water jet to insure the positive positioning of the dishes during the washing cycle.

These as well as other objects of this invention will be readily understood by those skilled in the art with reference to the following specification and accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is a side-elevational view of the rack which is the subject of this invention showing two types of dishes positioned therein and illustrating in phantom the position assumed by the loose dish under the influence of the impinging streams of water; and

FIG. 2 is a front-elevational vie-w, partially in crosssection, of one of the dish retaining members.

The dish retaining rack and nozzle assembly which is the subject of this invention comprises generally a pair of spaced, generally horizontal rail members upon which are positioned forward and rearward dish retaining members adapted to engage respectively with the forward and rearward sides of a dish positioned therebetween. Each of the members extends upwardly and forwardly above the rails and then bends rearwardly to form a knee. From the knee, the members extend upwardly and rearwardly and terminate at their upper reach in a dish retaining contact. Nozzle means are provided for emitting a stream of water adapted to strike a dish along its lower section positioned between the members and of such size as not to be wedged therebetween by insertion. This horizontal force causes the dish to twist such that the back thereof abuts the rearward knee and the upper forward side thereof abuts said forward upper dish retaining contact whereby the dish will not be pushed upwardly and out of the rack under the influence of a generally vertically directed washing or rinsing stream.

Referring now to the figures, a preferred embodiment of this invention will be described in detail. The rack, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10, comprises a pair of horizontal rails 11a and 11b which are suitably afiixed within the dishwashing chamber. Extending inwardly in converging fashion (from the rails are support 'bars 18a and 18b. Extending upwardly and forwardly from the support bars 18a and 18b are the lower side sections 12a and 12b. At their upper reach, sections 12 bend rearwardly to form knees 13a and 13b and the upward side sections 14a and 14b extend rearwardly from these points. Upper side sections 14a and 14b terminate in forwardly converging sections 15a and 15b to form an are 16 against which the upper forward surface of the dish is adapted to rest.

In FIG. 1, two pairs of dish retaining members 17 are shown. It will be understood, however, that in actual practice a plurality of equally spaced members 17 would be positioned on each set of horizontal rails 11 such that each intermediary dish retaining member would have a dish positioned both at its back side and its front side when the dishwasher was fully loaded. Reference is made to the above mention co-pending applications for an example of a preferred type of rack arrangement.

Each of the dish retaining members 17 is fabricated from a non-scratching, high-friction material covered resilient wire-like member as will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art. The high-friction surface prevents undesirable slipping and sliding of the dishes positioned within the rack and the resilient characteristic of the core wire or rod tends to bias both the forward and rearward retaining members 17 associated with a particular dish into abutment therewith.

Referring now specifically to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a typical dish 20 inserted into the rack such that its back contacts dish retaining member 170 and its front contacts dish retaining member 17d. Due to the concavity and size of the dish, little tendency will exist for it to be moved upwardly under the influence of a highpressure vertical stream of water since it is wedged by contact at three vertical levels between the dish retaining members 17c and 17d. Thus, the bottom of the dish abuts points 23, the junction between the dish retaining member and the rails 11; the top of the dish abuts upper dish retaining contact 15; and, the entire plate is biased resiliently forward under the influence of its abutment with knee 13a of dish retaining member 170. The three vertical contact levels wedge the dish into position and prevent movement thereof during the dishwashing process.

Referring again specifically to FIG. 1, there is illustrated also a plate 30 or the like positioned between dish retaining members 17a and 17b. Due to the size and concavity of plate 30, it will be noted that the vertical three level contact previously discussed in connection with plate 20 is not achieved when the plate is placed between the dish retaining members. Thus, absent any separate retaining force, the plate 30 would be free to move upwardly under the influence of a vertically directed, high-pressure spray and would chip or break both itself and other dishes positioned within the rack upon realighting. To prevent this, there is positioned below the dish retaining rack 10 a nozzle assembly which preferably is of the novel reciprocating type illustrated in the above mentioned co-pending patent application.

The nozzle assembly 40 comprises a generally upwardly directed nozzle 41 and a generally horizontally directed nozzle 42. Best results have been obtained by directed nozzle 41 such that the spray of water 43 emitted therefrom centers in a plane revolved counterclockwise as illustrated in 41 approximately 10 from the vertical. Similarly, the spray 44 issuing from nozzle 42 should be centered in a plane rotated clockwise approximately 20 from the horizontal. Thus, the terms generally vertical and generally horizonta are utilized in this application to identify any spray pattern exerting a significant force component on the dish in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively.

The primary function of the differently directed nozzles is to insure that the entire plate or other type of dish will be completely swept by one or the other or both of the water jets as the nozzle assembly 40 reciprocates in the X-Y direction as indicated in FIG. 1. A second function of the generally horizontalspray 44, when combined with the novel rack structure previously described, is to strike those dishes such as plate 30 at their lower sections and cause them to pivot about knee 13a in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 1. This pivoting, in addition to forcing the rear of the plate 30 into abutment with knee 13a, also causes the upper section 32 of the plate to abut and firmly press against upper dish retaining contact 15 on dish retaining member 17!). Thus, under the influence of the spray 44, the plate 30 moves to the position shown in phantom in FIG. 1 and the wedging action so obtained is sufiicient to retain the plate in position despite its being struck by one or more of the generally vertically directed sprays 43. The dish 30 may be retained in the position shown in phantom in FIG. 1 whenever the generally vertical spray comes into contact therewith by properly positioning the generally horizontal nozzles 42 on the nozzle carriage assembly. One such operable relationship, for example, is shown in the above noted co-pending applications.

While a preferred embodiment of this invention has been described in detail, it will be readily apparent to 4 those skilled in the art that numerous other embodiments may be conceived and fabricated without departing from the spirit of this specification and the accompanying drawings. Such other embodiments are to be deemed as included within the scope of the following claims unless these claims, by their language, expressly state otherwise.

I. claim:

1. A dish retaining rack and nozzle assembly comprising:

a pair of spaced, generally horizontal rail members;

forward and rearward dish retaining members adapted to engage respectively with the forward and rearward sides of a dish positioned therebetween, each of said members extending upwardly and forwardly above said rails and then bending rearwardly to form a knee and extending upwardly and rearwardly from said knee, each of said members terminating at its upper reach in a dish retaining contact; and

first and second nozzle means positioned below said rails and reciprocal beneath said rack for emitting a stream of water adapted to strike a dish so positioned between said members and twist it such that the back thereof abuts said rearward knee and the upper forward side thereof abuts said forward upper dish retaining contact whereby said dish will not be pushed upwardly and out of said rack by said second nozzle means directed generally upwardly.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said forward and rearward dish retaining members each comprises a non-scratching, high-friction material covered resilient wire-like member having first and second sides which extend upwardly and forwardly above said rails, one of said sides being afl-ixed to each of said rails, each of said sides bending rearwardly to form said knee at the upper extremity of their upwardly and forwardly extending sections, said sides then converging to form said dish retaining contact.

3. In a dishwasher having a generally vertically oriented, high-pressure spray means, the improvement compris ing:

a rack having a pair of base rails upon which a dish is adapted to rest, a fulcrum elevated above said base on one side of said dish and a dish retaining contact elevated above said fulcrum and positioned on the other side of said dish; and

spray means in fixed angular relation linearly reciprocatmg 1n respect to said rack and beneath said rack for directing a generally horizontal stream of water and a generally vertical stream of water whereby said dish is twisted into abutment with said fulcrum and said contact above said fulcrum so as to avoid vertical displacement under the sweep influence of said horizontal and vertical spray.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,664,904 1/1954 Stokes et al. 211-41 XR 2,678,050 5/1954 Knapp 134-158 XR 2,712,826 7/1955 Schleyer et al 134-139 2,827,064 3/1958 Heinicke 134-172 3,114,375 12/1963 Blanchard 134-138 3,124,251 3/1964 Guth 211-41 FOREIGN PATENTS 356,888 10/ 1961 Switzerland.

ROBERT L. BLEUTGE, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 211-41 

